Mayans M.C. Season 1 Finale Recap: A Sons of Anarchy Biker Just Joined the Story

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[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Mayans M.C. Season 1 finale. Read at your own risk!]

After EZ Reyes (JD Pardo) rode by a couple of crows eating a dog carcass in the opening seconds of the Mayans M.C.Season 1 finale, "Cuervo/Tz'ikb'uul," we should have been tipped off to the big reveal at the end of the episode. All season long, EZ's biggest bother has been finding the person or persons who killed his mother; well, we found out this week, and it was a doozy!

We all know the crow is a longstanding symbol of Sons of Anarchy's SAMCRO, and the dog — which was featured in the pilot — is a spirit animal for EZ (though maybe an elephant would be a better rep for EZ since he never forgets). Watching those crows peck at the dead pooch not so subtly translates to SAMCRO eating at EZ, and now it all makes sense.

Sons of Anarchy's Happy (David LaBrava) showed up as the big cameo of the season (with apologies to Lincoln Potter and a drop-in by Gemma) at the end of the episode, but it was joyous for only about five minutes. As EZ was about to deliver him some beers (Heineken or Miller, bleh), Happy's mug jogged EZ's memory. Happy was the one running from EZ in the flashbacks we've seen all season. Happy killed EZ's mom. DUN DUN DUN! Oh boy, that's not good.

The episode ended before we could get any real details on the whats, whys and hows, but one thing is clear: At the very least, SAMCRO enforcer Happy was involved in the murder of EZ's mother, and at the worst, it was a hit ordered by SAMCRO. Given the Mayans' new guns deal with SAMCRO, that has the potential to complicate everything and lays track for an exciting second season.

But that wasn't even the craziest thing to happen to EZ in the episode. Fulfilling Lincoln's (Ray McKinnon) demands in order to get all records of his deal and misdeeds erased, EZ shot and killed Kevin (Maurice Compte). And he also took out Kevin's former boss Bowen (Curtiss Cook), who just so happened to be at Kevin's house for a pie lunch, for whatever reason. In case you were wondering, Lincoln is apparently an expert on pie, and identified it as store bought rather than homemade.

Clayton Cardenas, JD Pardo; Mayans M.C.

Photo: Prashant Gupta/FX

And if that wasn't enough, EZ ignored Angel's (Clayton Cardenas) requests that he leave the M.C. and instead convinced Bishop (Michael Irby) to take over as his sponsor, citing a conflict of interest if his brother were to remain in charge of looking after him. That will be a good move for Bishop; he hasn't been used all that much in Season 1, and this puts him right in the thick of things next season.

But wait, there's more! In another total surprise, Alvarez (Emilio Rivera) took off his cut and left the club to work as counsel to Miguel (Danny Pino). It's like a move to the private sector! We don't know why he did it, but his departure sets up a possible war between SAMCRO and the Mayans in Season 2 since he would have been the one to diffuse any beef between the clubs because of his lengthy relationship with the reapers.

The finale accomplished a lot as it flipped the table over and replaced the pieces on the chess board. We didn't get the major death we were expecting (no offense, Kevin), but we got something a lot better instead: a big reason to get excited for Season 2.

Mayans M.C. has been renewed for Season 2, but FX has not announced a premiere date.